Kyrgyz Vote Gets a Seal of Approval

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Foreign monitors Monday generally praised the conduct of an election that gave an overwhelming victory to Kyrgyzstan’s acting president, but they also called on the fledgling Central Asian democracy to take further steps to improve voting procedures.

Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a former opposition leader who led a March revolt that ousted his predecessor, won with 89% of the vote in a field of six candidates, the Central Election Commission said.

Kimmo Kiljunen, head of a 340-member delegation of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, cited a thriving media that allowed candidates to present their views and said respect for civil rights such as free expression and assembly marked Kyrgyzstan’s “tangible progress” toward meeting international democratic standards.

Sunday’s vote in this mostly mountainous nation of 5 million drew international attention partly because the United States and Russia have military bases here, and also because of Kyrgyzstan’s potential role as an outpost of democracy in a region known for authoritarian regimes. The American base here serves as a staging area for U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

At a news conference Monday, Bakiyev said the peaceful election had laid a basis for renewed calm after this spring’s upheaval, which was triggered by allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections and public anger over corruption.

“The peak of social instability has been overcome,” Bakiyev said.

Bakiyev also spoke about the future of the U.S. base here, which was established at the airport in Bishkek, the capital, in late 2001. Each country has the right to end the arrangement with 180 days’ notice.

Last week, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, urged that a deadline be set for withdrawal of foreign forces from its member states in light of what it said was a decline in active fighting in Afghanistan.

Bakiyev signed the statement; it was unclear whether he did so under pressure from Russia and China.

“The question was raised quite correctly,” Bakiyev said Monday.

“The whole world united to fight international terrorism. There was indeed real war, with military planes and strong forces. This has changed. Afghanistan ... has stabilized. So now we may begin discussing the necessity of the U.S. military forces’ presence.”

Bakiyev’s strong electoral showing was generally attributed to two factors. First, the vote was seen as a public endorsement of the largely nonviolent March revolution that ousted President Askar A. Akayev. Second, Bakiyev had joined forces with his strongest potential rival, Felix Kulov, a former security chief-turned-opposition leader, who dropped out of the race in return for the promise of being named prime minister.

A major flaw in the balloting, Kiljunen said, was that some local election commissions appeared to have illegally cut names of some nonvoters from voting lists to boost the turnout percentage. Some Bakiyev supporters had been concerned that the 50% turnout required to make the vote valid might not be reached.

Election observers confirmed that the threshold was met, although turnout might not have reached the 75% figure reported by officials Sunday.